Saturday, February 06, 2016

Affirmative Action in Film

Spike Lee and
other black actors are demanding more racial or ethnic “diversity” in film,
especially in films that win Oscars, regardless of whether or notanyone wants to see them or their films, or
even if the films in which “minorities” appear deserve an Oscar or any kind of
recognition.

What Lee and
other claimants of entitlements want is much like anti-smokers demanding that
all restaurants and bars be made smoke-free by law. That is, for the government
to favor their voting bloc or pressure group and to “socialize” private
property and private associations. To “socialize” private property and private
associations, however, is to seize them. Or, compare that with Muslims
demanding that supermarkets create a special section for halal food products.

What no one seems
to understand is that affirmative action in film – which is what #OscarsSoWhite
is demanding – will mean affirmative action in literature. Most films today are
based on novels or on adaptations from novels (mostly bad adaptations, and a
handful of decent ones). Or on film scripts. “Diversity” in employment has
always been linked to political correctness in speech and even in imagery. One
can see it in television and print advertisement. It also means “rationing” casting
parts to blacks and other minorities. It means forced social associations.

It means the
collectivization of artistic and moral values based on race, gender, and even
disabilities.

There is a minor
character in Ayn Rand’s prophetic novel, Atlas
Shrugged, which, among other things, chronicles the destruction of America at
the hands of statists, egalitarians, career parasites (politicians and
bureaucrats), and other looters-by-law. The character is Balph
Eubank, a failed writer who nonetheless has political pull in Washington

Wikipedia has a
special site for breaking down Atlas
Shrugged by plot and character. Here is the section on Balph
Eubank:

Called "the literary
leader of the age", despite the fact that he is incapable of writing
anything that people actually want to read. What people want to read, he
says, is irrelevant. He complains that it is disgraceful that artists are
treated as peddlers, and that there
should be a law limiting the sales of books to ten thousand copies. He is a
member of the Looters. Balph Eubank appears in section 161 (“The Non-Commercial”) (Italics mine)

And what does
Balph Eubank write? Books that no one wants to read. Books that are eminently
non-commercial. Unsalable. Ballast for the bookstores’ remainder and bargain
tables. But Eubank (and his brain brothers in other realms) want to repeal the
trader principle.

…Eubank
declares that suffering is the essence of life, and that free will,
achievement, and happiness are laughable concepts of old literature. Plot, he
says, is a primitive vulgarity in literature. Moreover, life is about suffering
and frustration, that the only thing to live for is brotherly love. He later says
that the machine age has destroyed man's humanity, observing that Dagny Taggart
runs a railroad rather than practicing the beautiful art of the handloom and
bearing children.

In Atlas Shrugged, in
the scene at the Reardens’ anniversary party, the satirical character with the
bombastic name Balph Eubank proposes an “Equalization of Opportunity Bill” for
literature, as had been suggested for industry earlier in Ayn Rand’s
novel. Applied to literature, it would stipulate that no author would be
allowed to sell more than 10,000 copies of a book, opening up the field for
more writers because people would be forced to read a wider variety instead of
the same popular volumes.

Someone at the party wonders,
wouldn’t that be tough on writers? Balph Eubank responds haughtily, “So
much the better. Only those whose motive is not moneymaking should be
allowed to write”….

Remember that Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957,
long, long before terms such as “diversity” and “equal opportunity” became part
of the political and social lexicons and were embedded by fiat law in the
nation’s “consciousness.” I am not the first to say that Rand’s novel is
“prophetic”; columnists and pundits have said it countless times over the last
decade. In the current context, however, it is prophetic in the general
principles elucidated by Rand, principles that govern the Balkanization of a
country into warring pressure groups and noisy, belligerent tribes, into a
mosaic of separatist “communities,” a social and political disintegration
driven by the abandonment of reason and a deeply-rooted hostility to reality,
to individualism, and to objectivity.

But Rand could
never have imagined the numerous ugly forms the phenomenon has taken. Racial
and ethnic “diversity” in art in her time was not one of them, but if it went
unchallenged, it was bound to rear its life-freezing Medusa head as it has
today, with a dozen poisonous snakes wreathing on its head: homosexuality,
transgenderism, feminism; pedophilia; mental and physical disabilities, and
other abnormalcies whose advocates champion “rights.”

The hashtag
#OscarsSoWhite is a child of #BlackLivesMatter.

President
Barack Obama is a party to the disintegration; he is one of its chief vehicles.
Even during his Baltimore
mosque address on February 3rd, he touched on the absence of non-violent
Muslims in TV:

….Many [Americans] only hear
about Muslims and Islam from the news after an act of terrorism, or in
distorted media portrayals in TV or film, all of which gives this hugely
distorted impression….

Our television shows should
have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security --
(applause) -- because -- it’s not that hard to do. There was a time when
there were no black people on television. And you can tell good stories
while still representing the reality of our communities.

Mickey Mouse was not cast in the CoenBrothers' Hail, Caesar! Was he not black enough?Or not white enough?

“There was a
time when there were no black people on television.” When? In the late 1940’s?
The early 1950’s? Beginning in the 1960’s, there were hundreds of black
sitcoms on TV. Where was Obama when “The Jeffersons” was running? “Sanford
and Son”? Bill Cosby’s several sitcoms, including an animated show, “Fat
Albert”? And many more shows, some targeted to black viewers, others to the
general viewing audience.

US
president Barack
Obama has spoken for the first time on Oscars diversity, suggesting that
the issue comes down to basic fairness and challenging Hollywood to ask if
people of all races are “getting a fair shot”.

Describing
the furor over all-white lists of nominees for this year’s ceremony as “just an
expression of this broader issue” Obama said the American film industry could
benefit creatively by championing the creativity of those from black and
minority ethnic backgrounds.

“I
think that California is an example of the incredible diversity of this
country. That’s a strength,” he
told reporters at the White House. “I think that when everyone’s story is
told … that makes for better art.” Added Obama: “It makes for better entertainment;
it makes everybody feel part of one American family, so I think as a whole the
industry should do what every other industry should do which is to look for
talent, provide opportunity to everybody. And I think the Oscar debate is
really just an expression of this broader issue. Are we making sure that
everybody is getting a fair shot?”

It seems that
Hollywood has given especially blacks more than a “fair
shot” in film. There are hundreds
of films that feature blacks or that were made by blacks or that were
targeted at black viewers. But TV and big screen movies made by American
Indians? By Asians? By Hispanics? By the “disabled”? By gays? By transgenders? By Pakistanis? By
Muslims? Not so many of those stories have been told. Have I overlooked any
“minorities”? The aged? The feminists? The autistic? The wheelchair-bound? The
obese? The blind? The mute? The deaf?

So, one must
ask oneself? Where have Spike Lee, Will Smith, Chris Rock, Barack Obama, and
Ethan Hawke been all these years? In what alternate universe have they been
living? What is their true complaint? Will Smith co-starred in two Men In Black films. What chip sits on
his shoulder?

One reader
wrote on Daniel Greenfield’s column of February 6th, "’Guam
is Tipping Over’" Congressman Demands Black Oscar Quotas:”“Maybe they should change the hashtag to "#OscarsNotBlackEnough.”

On Jan. 21, the Board of Governors of
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved "sweeping"
changes to membership rules, such as extending voting terms in regards to how
long it's been since a member actively worked in Hollywood, and promised to
recruit a more diverse voting membership.

“The Academy is going to lead and not wait
for the industry to catch up,” said Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs.
“These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate
impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership
composition.”

During
a recent CNN interview with several “Hollywood heavyweights” about the
lack of diversity among this year’s Academy Awards nominees, film director
Spike Lee chided his “progressive” counterparts in the industry for not being
“active” in this “movement.”

“Hollywood has many times in
the past been active with progressive movements,” Lee said. “I would like to
see more people step up because we’re going to be on the right side of history….We’re
not going,” Lee said, referring to the calls to boycott this year’s Oscars ceremony. “Even with
the changes the made, which I think are great, we’re still going to be at the
Nicks game.”

What Spike Lee
and others of his malevolent, no-talent ilk want are: Quotas. They want their
10,000 copies and the guaranteed income and prestige that come with the print
run or with the box office.

And if a
novelist is fortunate (unlucky enough) to have his work selected by a Hollywood
studio for adaptation to film, will many of his characters be appropriated and
transformed into black characters? Suppose he does pen a novel with many black or
other “minority” characters, will the black casting be treated as “fair enough,”
or “not enough”? Will the writer have any say in what happens to his
characters? Not bloody likely.

There are many
other unaddressed complications. If a film comes out with the “right” quota of
white and black roles, should an Hispanic viewer care? Or if a film comes out
with the “right” amount of white and Hispanic characters, should a black viewer
care? An Asian? A Jew? A gay? A transgender? Will he feel “left out,” “under-represented,”
or “snubbed”? Which ethnic, religious, or racial “community” will cry
“discrimination”? And if the correct quota of Oscar winners is not of a
specific ethnic, religious, gender, or racial class, will a flurry of new
outraged, super-sensitive hashtags emerge on Twitter: #OscarsSoLatino? #OscarsTooHeterosexual?
#OscaesSoWhite/Black/LatinaChick? #OscarsSoBlack?

However,
failing to get those guaranteed 10,000 film roles, blacks and other minorities
who feel under-represented doubtless will accept direct or indirect government film
production subsidies, which go by the various names of “tax breaks,” “tax credits,”
and “movie production incentives.” There are many articles on the subject of state
subsidies. Three of the leading series now on Netflix, “House of Cards”
(shot largely in Baltimore), “Orange is the New Black” (shot largely in
Rockland County, New York), and “The Walking Dead” (it’s never left Georgia,
even though later seasons were set though not filmed in Alexandria, Virginia).
They benefit from special tax breaks and other state government-granted
advantages, such as the suspensions of state and local hotel/motel taxes, sales
taxes, and other government levies while a company is filming on location in a
state. Often segments of the series are shot free of charge on government property,
saving the producers the cost of constructing sets.“Dexter,” a crime
series (2006-2013), features one of the most “multi-racial,” “multi-ethnic,”
and multi-location TV series on Netflix, shot largely in Miami, Florida and
Long Beach, California.

Trigger
Warning! There are few black characters in the Cyrus Skeen detective novel
series, and none in Silver
Screens.This writer accepts no subsidies, and
certainly no “incentives” to produce. He knows that if he did, that would be
the end of his writing career.